The Apocalypse For Dummies
by Danjela
Summary: Dina Walters, a relatively normal girl from Holly Springs, finds herself in the middle of the Zombie Apocalypse while she's backpacking through the United States. Having seen every zombie movie in existence, she's quite prepared for it. She thinks...


**Title:** The Apocalypse for Dummies

**Chapter: **Where It All Started

**Chapter Rating:** T

**Warning: **/

**Author's Note: **I don't own any of the characters from the Walking Dead. I do – however – own Dina Walters, her family and friends. Please, ask me if you'd like to use any of these characters. The rating of this fic might change later on.

"Thank you for letting me stay here!" Dina called over her shoulder as she walked away from the farmhouse that belonged to the Crowell-family, waving at the man and woman who lived there. "Take care of yourself!" Dina smiled, waving again. "I will!"

She'd only stayed at the Crowell-farm for two nights, but it had been enough for the brunette to take a liking to the two people living there. Olivia Crowell was almost exactly like Dina's grandmother, and it was near impossible not to adore the elderly woman. George Crowell was a hard-working man, even though he'd retired three years previously.

Dina had been working towards this trip for four years. After she'd passed her last paper, she'd started packing her things and a week later, she was backpacking through the southern states. Her parents had objected to the trip for day one, but nobody had been able to talk Dina out of it. She'd never been very far from the little village where she'd grown up, and she figured that now was as good a time as any to start seeing a little more of the world.

She had quite a long road ahead, before she would arrive in Atlanta, the next big city on her route. She'd never been to the city before, but she'd heard stories from former classmates and she figured she could at least stay a day or two before moving on, even though she was quite certain that the city would be too big for her liking.

Having grown up in a small town called Holly Springs, about an hour's drive from Atlanta, she never really got the chance to get used to living in a big city. She'd never really wanted to either, being quite content with the size of Holly Springs.

But, that didn't matter now. She wanted to see the world, and the world had a lot of big cities, so she would visit them, get used to the chaos, the people and the attitude. Being a Nurse school graduate, she knew there would be more chance of getting a job if she moved to a bigger town or city and even though it might take a while to get used to it, she didn't think she would mind moving.

Humming a soft song to herself, it didn't take her more than two hours to reach the sand-road that ran parallel to Interstate 85, all the way to Atlanta. She could've taken the route through the trees, but Mr. Crowell had told her that this one would save her about half an hour, and she wanted to get to the city before it would become dark. If there was one piece of advice she'd taken from her parents, it was not to travel at night if she could avoid it.

It seemed like she wasn't the only person walking to the city, spotting a dark figure walking ahead of her. "Hello!" She called out, figuring she could at least try to make conversation, since it was still a two and a half hour walk to Atlanta. "On your way to Atlanta too?" The figure seemed to turn around and walk up to her, but there was something odd about the way they walked.

"Are you okay?" She called out; her brow furrowed as she was slightly worried about the state the person was in. "I have a first aid kit in my backpack!" The figure wobbled closer and closer, and soon enough, a face swam into view. But it was a face like she'd never seen before.

"_Fucking hell!_" She yelped, when she noticed what was wrong. It looked like a big chunk of the man's jaw was missing. But it wasn't the only thing that scared her. He only had one arm and his eyes seemed dead.

Taking a slow step back, she quickly glanced around, looking for a way out, but to her left, there was a guardrail and to her right, a high fence. The only two options she had, were straight ahead, past the man, or back to where she'd come from. "Mister?" She tried again, but the man didn't reply, just shuffled towards her, his one remaining arm clawing in her direction.

She'd seen enough zombie-movies to know what was going on and she immediately turned on her heels and ran back in the direction she'd come from. Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that the _thing_ wasn't nearly as fast as she was. That was a good thing, it meant she could stay ahead of it.

But what good would that do in the end? She couldn't run back to the Crowell-farm, she'd never make it, it was too far away. And her backpack was too heavy to run very far. Her eyes darted left and right as she looked for a way out, but the only way, was towards the highway, and that probably wouldn't do her any good if the thing could climb.

On the other hand, in what movie did zombies climb? While running, she shrugged her backpack off and stopped at a point at the guardrail that seemed easy enough for her to climb over. She threw her backpack to the other side, hoping she wouldn't break anything she needed in the process and started to climb over the rail, towards the concrete road on the other side. When she'd reached her backpack, she picked it up and hoisted it back onto her shoulders, carefully watching the undead man on the other side, to see if he was going to be able to climb over too. But he seemed to be stuck, still clawing at her with his one arm.

A little unsure of what she was supposed to do now, she felt the side pockets of her backpack for the mobile phone that was supposed to be in there. She only had it with her for emergencies, and was pretty sure it was turned off. She'd promised her parents to call whenever she got to a town or city, but had also told them she wasn't going to be reachable on her own phone. Backpacking meant – according to Dina – no technology, and so she didn't use it.

Although, right now, she was glad she had the device on her, and as soon as she'd managed to turn it on, she dialed 911 and held it against her ear. Nothing. She glanced at the screen and bit her lips. No reception. Was she that far from the city? The Crowell's had had a landline, so there had been no need to check for reception. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd used her phone. How long had the line been dead? Minutes? Hours? Maybe even days… She didn't know.

What now? The only thing she could do, was to keep going towards the city and see if she could find help there. Find a police station, explain the situation and send the police back to this spot. Glancing at the clawing figure on the other side of the guardrail one last time, she turned around and started walking towards the city again.


End file.
